Bed
by Mind of the Childishly Naive
Summary: Apparently he had made a mistake in assuming he was welcome in her bed. Bulma/Vegeta


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Bed

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Vegeta collapsed onto the training room floor.

He thought about sleeping right where he was, but he needed to get up and shut off the gravity machine. He laid there for a few moments, catching his breath, his limbs heavy with the satisfying exhaustion that only comes after an intense day of training. Well...night of training. He had no idea what time it was, only that he'd been at it for hours.

Pushing himself up with his hands, just enough to look around, Vegeta frowned across the room toward the consol. Along side the numbers reading so-much-times Earth's gravity was a digital clock, 3:48 AM.

Training for another twelve minutes wouldn't kill him.

Vegeta stood, surprised by the shaking in his hands as he took his weight off them. His stomach growled.

Then again . . .

His last meal _had _been over eight hours ago. Vegeta punched the button turning off the gravity and it slowly started its count down to normal as he headed for the door. The Brief household was empty and quiet, given the time, and the floor creaked under the Saiyan Prince's footsteps as he navigated through the dark rooms.

The kitchen, likewise, was dark, save the dim light that was on above the stove.

Vegeta raided the cabinet first, because it was closest to the door. The peanut butter crackers and the cereal he found on the top shelf only lasted until he crossed the room to the refrigerator, where he discarded the empty boxes on the counter. He ate all the leftovers that didn't require re-heating, surprised to have even found them.

It made him wonder if maybe he had missed a meal or something, but he shook that thought off quickly. The woman normally came to get him when she cooked, even when he told her he didn't want to be bothered. Lucky for him, he supposed, that she was obsessed with making sure he remembered to eat something.

Vegeta paused with the refrigerator door still open, snapping the lid back onto the plastic container of potato soup he'd found in the very back, but wasn't sure he trusted.

He had planned on sleeping in the room down the hall -- the spare one that he'd used since he first came here -- but now the Saiyan reconsidered. He didn't know why he kept forgetting that he had been welcome in the bed upstairs for over three years. And it was much more comfortable than the mattress he normally slept on...

Scowling, Vegeta thrust the container back among the sandwich-makes that he hadn't eaten and the beer, rattling the refrigerator as a whole when he kicked the door shut and left the kitchen. He didn't know why he was so agitated; it _wasn't_ nerves.

Still, he stood at the foot of the stairs, glaring up them, his arms crossed and his feet set apart.

Twice he tried to go back to the spare room, exhausted from his training, and twice he came back to the stairs.

He prowled agitatedly around the living room, and was quiet. Then he accidentally kicked the remote under the couch, and swore at the racket it made clattering across the floor, but he left the remote where it was. Vegeta knew that if he picked the couch up to retrieve it, he'd end up throwing it against the wall, so he didn't bother and finally went upstairs.

The door was ajar when Vegeta stopped in front of it. He pushed it open, slowly, scowling when the hinge creaked, but Bulma didn't seem to have heard it because she didn't stir.

He stepped into the room, watching her carefully until he collapsed onto the bed, his face buried in the extra pillow. He tensed when Bulma shifted, then, and glared at her when she rolled over toward him. He couldn't see her face around the tangled mass of her blue hair, but she pulled an arm out from the blanket he'd laid on.

She must have still been half asleep, because when she reached across to see who it was, she smacked Vegeta in the face. He flinched, not because it hurt, but because he had not been expecting it, and jerked away as Bulma quickly withdrew her hand. She shifted again, her hands fisting into the blanket as she sat up.

"Vegeta!" she said, yanking the blanket out from under him with all her might.

He rolled off of it, startled by the reaction, but he didn't get a chance to get up on his own. He felt Bulma's feet on his stomach the next moment, and then she shoved Vegeta off the bed and into the floor.

He hit his head on the bedside table on his way down, and came up swearing.

"God dammit, woman!" he shouted, holding the back of his head. He wasn't really suffering from the blow, so much as the indignity of being shoved out of the bed.

Bulma stretched herself across the bed, managing to take up the entire thing despite her slender form, so Vegeta wouldn't be able to get back in, and he damn well planned on it, now.

She glared at him, and struggled for a moment prying off the hand he'd clamped onto the mattress.

"You're filthy," she accused, to Vegeta's surprise, "You're sticky and sweaty, and I _know_ you haven't showered since you finished training, whenever that was." Bulma smacked his hand when he put it back on the bed. "I just changed these sheets, you either go shower, or you sleep somewhere else, do you hear?"

Shaking with rage, Vegeta shoved himself up and away from the bed, and stormed from the room. If he had wanted to wake the entire household, he would have slammed the door shut as he left, and he thought about it even as he made his way down the hall.

For a few quiet moments, Bulma thought he had gone back downstairs.

Then she heard the door just down the hall shut angrily, but quietly, and the shower come on, and she smiled, rolling back over to her own side of the bed. She didn't open her eyes when she heard the water cut off ten minutes later, or when Vegeta came back into the room, radiating his annoyance and jerking open dresser drawers.

There was the rustling of clothes, and the drawer was shoved closed. The bed bounced as Vegeta collapsed beside her, his back turned toward her, and Bulma rolled over to face him again, getting as close as she could.

She swung her legs, and the blanket, over him, and grinned broadly when Vegeta turned onto his back, glaring at her.

"Thank you," she said, very smugly, swinging her foot a little to annoy him.

Vegeta laid his arm across her legs and considered throwing her off (or across the room...), but he changed his mind and closed his eyes, telling himself that he had already won and there wasn't any need to fight.

Apparently, he was wrong again.

"Stop it," Vegeta said gruffly when she kept swinging her foot, his eyes still closed.

Bulma stopped, smiling. She did it again.

"Go downstairs," she suggested, watching his face twitch. It wasn't often that she got to pick on him while he was trying to sleep. Besides, he had woken her up.

Vegeta grabbed Bulma's legs when she persisted in that irritating movement and held both of them still with his one hand, opening his eyes to glare at her again.

"No," he said, "If you're not going to keep still, you go downstairs."

"It's my bed," Bulma said, feigning indignity. Vegeta scowled at her, as though he cared. She tried again, "You woke me up."

"Go back to sleep, then."

"I can't, I'm awake now."

"Then go. down. stairs."

"Why don't you make me?"

For some reason, Bulma hadn't expected him to actually do anything. At least, if she _had _expected him to do something, her mind had gone in the complete opposite direction. Vegeta had her off the bed and was half-way down the stairs with her before Bulma even registered what he was doing. She punched his shoulder, uselessly, and demanded to be put down.

She got her wish when Vegeta dumped her on the couch, and went back upstairs.

He _had_ won.

But it wasn't the same when Vegeta laid back down in the middle of the bed, and he didn't object when an irritable Bulma came back upstairs and burrowed under the blanket, throwing herself on top of him. Vegeta grunted in annoyance, but didn't bother moving. He sighed into the pillow, closing his eyes as Bulma rested her head between his shoulders.

At least she was warm.

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(A/n) Randomly, I got the Vegeta/Bulma fangirl in me. There will probably be more of these xD they're so funny. Please, review~! =D

-Motcn


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